News from Gajapati,ORISSA - 11 May 07

The elephant outrage in the Gajapati District since the last one week is the result of deforestation and the destruction of animal habitat ,which has led to a herd of 11 elephants creating havoc in the Districts of Gajapati and Rayagada .This herd had entered the Kasinagar Block on the 4 ^th of this month and have killed two persons of a single family , and have injured many and have led to destruction of crop , houses and jungles in the villages of Sara , Badi ,Ullabhadra ,Marynagar etc . How and why the elephants have entered the human habitation leaving behind their protected sanctuary makes an interesting study . To protect the elephants and in order to create a sanctuary for them the a project named "Lakhari Safari" was envisaged in the year 1985 in then Ganjam District which is now a part of the Gajapati District. Located at a distance of 12 km from the famous Tibetan Refugee village of Chandragiri the Lakhari Safari was initially planned within a radius of 250 km clubbing the Lakhari, Alari Ramaguda and the Dhoba Dhobani Forest areas. But as there were a large number of established villages and removing the said villagers would have led to more complications the radius area of the 'sanctuary' was reduced to 174 km and this would be restricted to the Lakhari Forest only. But even in this forest range there were more then 35-40 villages big and small and almost all the said villages have refused government extended rehabilitation package and continue to adamantly habitat inside the restricted forest area. In the year 2002 the Gajapati Forest Department had asked for an assistance of Rs 5 crores of Central Aid for the development of the elephant sanctuary at the Lakhari Forest, where the elephant census was more than 200 two decades back .While the funds never arrived , an Annual Action Plan for this project was made under which 40 lacs was projected for the maintaining of the sanctuary , and basing on this in the year the forest department received 12 lacs in 2004-05 and 30 lacs in 2005-06 . But how successfully the funds have been implemented can be understood from the following incidents .

In March 2007 elephants from this sanctuary tried to enter Chandragiri and destroyed the compound wall of a school . In March 2006 three elephants were electrocuted when they tried to go away from their jungle area in search of water . In January 2005 a dead elephant allegedly to have been shot by hunters was found on the border of the Lakhari Forest . In April 2007 a herd of elephants trekked more than 50km into the nearby Gunupur Block of Rayagada District and attacked a TV reporter when he was shooting their photos . Now more recently another herd have been loitering in the blocks of Kasinagar , Gumma(Gajapati) and Gunupur(Rayagada) creating bedlam throughout their passage .

The DFO(I/C) Siba Narayan Mohapatra Gajapati when contacted said "We have been trying our best to keep the elephants inside the sanctuary , but due to the intense heat and the unabated jungle cutting the herds are moving out of the safe zone into the human areas". Forest officials deputed to the sanctuary concede that keeping the elephant herd inside the jungle is a tough task as there is no barricading and there is acute shortage of food and water . Interestingly the Gajapati Forest Department does not have any expert hands who can used for controlling the movement of the elephants when they escape out of the sanctuary .Above all many tribal families continue to encroach on these reserved land and thereby disturb the animal movement. The population of the elephant has also come down drastically to below 100 in the last ten years, and unless the Central Government wakes up to the need of protecting this species the day is not far when the sanctuary will be bereft of any elephants . Ironically though the tuskers continue to be an object of fear, in many of the villages it was observed that the villagers were treating this as an auspicious sign and after the departure of the herd ladies conducted prayers and broke coconuts though none dared to offer any type of food or fruits to them .